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About direct messaging on TikTok • Who can send direct messages on TikTok • How to find your direct messages • How to send a direct message • How to use stickers in a direct message • How to delete, mute, and filter direct messages • How to manage who can send you direct messages • How to turn read status on or off • How to use safety features for direct messaging • Why you can't send or receive direct messages • How to report a direct message • How to block someone from sending you a direct message![]()
About direct messaging on TikTok
Direct messaging (DM) helps you connect with your friends and community on TikTok. Messaging means you can send and receive messages, and TikTok videos, directly on TikTok.
With direct messaging on TikTok, you can:
• Share TikTok videos with others.
• Send and receive messages with mutual followed friends, suggested friends and contacts, and people you may know.
• Adjust privacy settings to determine who can send you direct messages.
• Adjust notification settings.
• Report accounts and content that violates our Community Guidelines.
• Check who has read your direct messages.
• Find out who is active or was recently active.
Who can send direct messages on TikTok
Direct messaging on TikTok is available to:
• Registered account holders aged 16 and older. Parents and guardians of 16 to 18-year-old users can set restrictions on this feature through Family Pairing.
• Anyone who has permission to send a direct message to others. You can control who can send you direct messages in your Privacy settings. Keep in mind, if you update your direct message setting to No one, you won't be able to receive direct messages. You can still access your message history in your Inbox, but you can't receive new direct messages in those chats.
How to find your direct messages
To view all your direct messages on TikTok:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Inbox at the bottom.
2. Tap a name from the Messages list to go to the chat.
How to send a direct message
You can share content such as TikTok videos, effects, hashtags, or sounds through a direct message.
To send content through a direct message:
1. In the TikTok app, go to the video or other shareable content, like effect, hashtag, or sound, you'd like to share.
༚ To search, tap the Search button at the top of your screen and enter what you're looking for in the search bar.
༚ You can also tap an effect, hashtag, or sound directly from a video to share.
2. Tap the Share button. For videos, you can also press and hold on the video you'd like to share.
3. Tap the profile photo of the user you'd like to share with. You can select multiple people to share with.
4. Enter an optional message and tap Send.
Note: Private videos can't be shared. If the creator of the video changed the video status from public to private after you shared it in a message, the video will be unavailable and you won't be able to watch it.
To send a direct message in a chat:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Inbox at the bottom.
2. From here:
༚ If you have recent messages, tap a name from the Messages list to go to the chat.
༚ If you follow someone and they follow you back, tap the Direct message button at the top, then tap their name to send a direct message.
3. Type a message. You can also tap the Emoji button to send GIFs, emojis, and stickers.
4. Tap the Send button.
Alternatively, if you follow someone and they follow you back, you can go to their Profile and tap Message to send a direct message.
Note: You won't be able to send a direct message to someone that follows you if they have their direct message privacy setting set to No one.
How to use stickers in a direct message
To send stickers in a direct message:
1. In the TikTok app, go to the chat in your Inbox.
2. Tap the Emoji button in the message bar.
3. Tap the Sticker store button.
4. Choose a sticker you'd like to use from the Video stickers or Sticker sets tabs.
For video stickers:
༚ Tap a video sticker to send it in a direct message.
༚ Tap the filters at the top to sort by most popular, newest, or trending stickers.
༚ To add a sticker to your Favorites, tap the Favorites button on the sticker. Tap it again to remove it from your Favorites.
For sticker sets:
༚ To view the sticker details, press and hold on the sticker. From here, you can choose to view all stickers by the creator on their profile, view the original video, and report the sticker.
༚ To save a sticker set, tap Add. The sticker set will be added to the sticker panel and ready for you to use in a direct message.
༚ Once you add a sticker set, tap Use. You'll be directed to the sticker panel where you can send a sticker in a direct message.
༚ To view all your saved sticker sets, tap Added at the top. From here, you can drag and drop the sticker set to change the order and tap the Delete button next to the sticker set to remove it.
To create a video sticker in a direct message:
1. In the TikTok app, go to a direct message in your Inbox.
2. Tap the Emoji button.
3. Tap the Favorites button, then tap the Create sticker button.
4. Choose a video from the Liked, Posted, or Favorites tabs.
5. Edit the sticker, as needed. You can choose to add text and crop the video. When you're done, tap Next.
6. To choose who can discover and use your video sticker in TikTok, turn the Add to sticker store setting on or off.
7. Tap Create sticker. Your sticker is added to the favorites tab in your direct messages and is ready to be used. To remove the sticker from your favorites, tap and hold on the sticker, then tap Remove.
Any stickers you create are also available from your profile where you can send them in a direct message, view the original video, add them to the sticker store or delete them. Learn more about stickers on TikTok.
How to delete, mute, and filter direct messages
To delete a chat:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Inbox at the bottom.
2. Below Messages:
༚ For iOS devices, swipe left on a chat and tap Delete.
༚ For Android devices, press and hold, then tap Delete.
To delete a single direct message:
1. Go to the chat in your Inbox.
2. Press and hold on the direct message, then tap Delete.
Keep in mind, if you delete a chat or direct message it only deletes it for you. The person you sent the messages to can still see the messages.
To mute direct message notifications:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Inbox at the bottom of your screen.
2. Below Messages:
༚ For iOS devices, swipe left on a chat and tap More, then tap Mute to stop getting notifications.
༚ For Android devices, press and hold, then tap Mute to stop getting notifications.
Or, to mute notifications directly from a chat:
༚ Tap the More options button at the top of the chat, then turn the Mute notifications setting on or off.
To filter direct messages:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Inbox at the bottom.
2. Tap Message requests, then tap the Settings button.
3. Choose your filter preferences:
༚ Filtered requests: Filter messages that appear to be from unsafe sources. Once you accept these messages, they appear in your Inbox.
༚ Always allow business messages: Receive messages from TikTok Creator Marketplace brands. They can send you up to 3 messages before you accept their requests.
How to manage who can send you direct messages
To turn on your direct messages or change who can send you direct messages:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Profile at the bottom.
2. Tap the Menu button at the top.
3. Tap Settings and privacy.
4. Tap Privacy.
5. Tap Direct messages, then tap Direct messages and choose who you'd like to allow to send you direct messages. Keep in mind, some of these settings are not available to everyone.
Keep in mind, some of these settings are not available to everyone.
༚ Everyone: Anyone can send you a direct message. Messages from mutual friends and people you follow appear in your Inbox. Messages from people you don't follow appear in Message requests. You can choose to accept, delete or report these messages.
༚ Suggested friends: Matched friends, including synced Facebook friends and phone contacts, and followers who you follow back, can send you a direct message.
༚ Followers that you follow back and people you sent messages to: Anyone who follows you and you follow back and people you've sent messages to can send you a direct message.
༚ No one: You can't receive direct messages from anyone. Keep in mind, if you update your direct message setting to No one, you won't be able to receive direct messages. You can still access your message history in your Inbox, but you can't receive new direct messages in those chats.
How to turn read status on or off
Read status lets you see if someone has read your direct message and vice versa.
To turn read status on or off:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Profile at the bottom.
2. Tap the Menu button at the top.
3. Tap Settings and privacy.
4. Tap Privacy, then tap Direct messages.
5. Turn the Read status setting on or off. For users aged 18 and older, the setting is turned on by default.
Note: The other person will know when you read their message only when both of you have read status turned on.
How to use safety features for direct messaging
There are several safety features for direct messaging to ensure messages adhere to our Community Guidelines and to give you the opportunity to report unwanted messages or block someone from sending you messages.
Why you can't send or receive direct messages
If you can't send or receive a direct message on TikTok, it could be because your content or message has been flagged or reported, or your account is temporarily suspended.
Our Community Guidelines provide guidance on what is and what isn't allowed on TikTok to help foster a welcoming, safe, and entertaining experience. If a direct message contains content that violates our Community Guidelines, it may be automatically blocked or, if reported, flagged for additional review by our Safety team.
If a direct message violates our Community Guidelines, we may:
• Send a warning in the app the first time your content violates our Community Guidelines.
• Permanently ban your account if the direct message violates a zero-tolerance policy. We may also block a device to help prevent future accounts from being created.
• Suspend your account's ability to send direct messages for a period of time (typically between 24 and 48 hours), depending on the severity of the violation and previous violations.
• Restrict your account to a view-only experience (typically between 72 hours and one week). This means your account can't send direct messages.
• Notify you that your account may be permanently banned after several violations. This means that if the behavior persists, the account will be permanently banned.
Learn more about content violations and bans.
How to report a direct message
If you receive a message that you think goes against our Community Guidelines, we encourage you to report it to us.
To report a direct message:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Inbox at the bottom.
2. Below Messages:
༚ For iOS devices, swipe left on a chat, then tap Report and follow the instructions provided.
༚ For Android devices, press and hold on a chat, then tap Report and follow the instructions provided.
3. (Optional) Tap on a chat for more report options:
༚ Tap the Report button at the top and follow the instructions provided to report
༚ Tap the More options button at the top, then select Report and follow the instructions provided.
༚ Press and hold on a direct message, then select Report and follow the instructions provided.
༚ In a new chat, tap Report on the banner at the bottom of the screen and follow the instructions provided.
How to block someone from sending you a direct message
You can block someone so they can't send you direct messages or view your videos on TikTok.
To block someone in your Inbox:
1. In the TikTok app, tap Inbox at the bottom.
2. Below Messages:
༚ For iOS devices, swipe left on a chat and tap More, then tap Block.
༚ For Android devices, press and hold on a chat, then tap Block.
3. Tap Block again to confirm.
Or,
1. Go to the direct message.
2. Tap the More options buttons at the top.
3. Turn the Block setting on.
4. Tap Block again to confirm.
Note: A Block button will appear next to blocked messages.
Note: Direct messages on TikTok are encrypted at rest and while in transit. End-to-end encryption is not currently available. We place a premium on ensuring that our younger users have a safe experience by default on TikTok. Like many companies, we maintain the ability to decrypt user data in response to valid legal process and to enforce our Community Guidelines, and we regularly publish Transparency Reports to provide visibility into this work. We maintain internal controls to ensure that only personnel with proper authorization and a demonstrated need to perform their job have access to certain decrypted data like contact information or direct messages.